Memos Show Blackwater Team Sent On Deadly Route, Newspaper Says

Memos show Blackwater USA contractors who were ambushed and killed in Fallujah, Iraq, three years ago were told to go through the dangerous city when a safer route around it was available.

The News and Observer of Raleigh is reporting that a Blackwater supervisor also took two members of each six-man team for other work and made the contractors more vulnerable to attack.

Memos from the second team, which wasn't attacked because its leader decided to go around Fallujah on another road on March 31, 2004, said the teams also were sent without maps. The newspaper says other memos said maps were available.

A Blackwater spokeswoman says she can't talk about specifics because of litigation. But spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell says the memos were written by team members who weren't present during the attack, which she called a tragedy in which brave men died.

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